Life Lessons of 2015!

I made it a goal for myself that each year I will grow as a person, and become wiser. This year was one of the most important years for me, lots of good things happened, but there were also stressful moments. I had one of the biggest realizations this year about many circumstances in my life. This got me thinking to write this post and talk about what I’ve learned!

Without further ado, let’s begin!

You can’t change people!

It’s true, you are not responsible to change the thinking of someone if they refuse to accept they have a problem or if they are difficult. The only person you can change is yourself, it’s hard enough to change ourselves, what makes us think we can change others. You are not Jesus, do yourself a favor and let it go.

2. Let it go.

This brings me to my second point, letting things go. We as human beings are prone to holding grudges, and not letting go of things that upset us. When you don’t let go, you hold on to the toxic feelings, sadness, anger, jealousy and regret. Let me use a metaphorical example, imagine holding on to a cactus. The needles are pointing you and they hurt you, but you do not let go because you think you will get used to the pain. You won’t, the needles will dig in and hurt you even more. Letting go is not an easy task, but taking it one day at a time and trying to be positive will prove to be helpful.

2. Think positive.

Positivity is contagious, positive people radiate a calm aura and draw people to them. Life can be challenging, it’s easy to forget to be positive, but do not fall victim to a negative thinking pattern. Take it one day at a time, and think one positive thought each day. Even you had the worst day, think of that one thing that made you smile. Keep a journal and write one positive things that happened to you each day!

3. Follow your passion.

No matter what anyone says, always follow your passion! Have a solid plan and start taking action, we don’t know what the future holds for us, but we can shape our future with our actions in the here and now. I am back at school studying in a program that will land me a job in the arts and entertainment industry. It took a long time for me to figure out my plan, but I finally did it. The best is yet to come!!!

4. Live life to the fullest.

Not every day will be rainbows, sunshine and roses, but we have to learn to live life to the fullest. Someone once told me, try to live an interesting life! This saying resonated with me and I try to apply it to my life. I am currently doing some work at the Canadian Music Centre to gain some experience, there is an elderly gentlemen who volunteers there and has traveled to 69 countries. We sat down for an hour and talked about his adventures throughout his life, he also told me that his life had hardships too. However, he has always been determined to live life to the fullest and create a memorable and filling life. I hope you all start doing that too, I certainly am determined to try new things and one day look back on the great life I’ve had.

5. Accept there are bad people.

We encounter difficult people every where you go, at work, on the public transit, at school and more. Going back to my first point in this post, you cannot change them. What you can do is to try and avoid them, try not to get involved and have limited interactions. However, there are times when you can’t do that, in that case stand up for yourself if people are being unfair. Bullying is not allowed, so learn to speak up for yourself and do not let people walk all over you.

6. Control your emotions.

We are human beings, so of course our emotions might get the best of us. However, we need to monitor ourselves and watch how we react to certain things. Our emotions make us think irrationally, before we respond to anything that upsets us, take some time to breathe and remove yourself from the situation. Meditation is wonderful way to relax your mind, and control what you feel.

7. Be kind to yourself.

We live in a overly critical society, anyone can find anything wrong with you! Do not listen to them, and know your worth as a person. We are our own worst critic too, be kind to yourself and love yourself. When you do you will radiate confidence and positivity!

8. Do not overthink.

Overthinking makes a situation seem worse than it actually is! Go with the flow, overthinking is not going to make anything better, in fact it will make you feel worse. Thinking of worse case scenarios to a potential situation is pointless, there have been some many times I’ve been overthinking and in the end things were fine.

9. Things happen for a reason.

It’s story time, so in September I was supposed to start taking my first course at the program I’m enrolled in, but this course got cancelled. I was so upset, and then the second course I was supposed to take in November got cancelled too. My first reaction in September was tears, lots of them, I felt like nothing is going my way. Then I did something I’ve never done, after crying a waterfall of tears, I sat down, took a deep breath and began to think. I started to think of plan B, this plan was doable. At the time, I had a very stressful time of the year because school was starting and I had to manage a classroom of 15 children by myself. If I had my classes and the pressure from work, I would’ve crumbled. The point of my story is that things happen for a reason and the cancellation of my courses is a blessing in disguise. God has a plan for you, just take it easy and trust it!

I hope you guys enjoyed this post, I am proud of myself this year and I’ve come a long way. Many people say, “A new year, a new me”, let’s think about it in another way! A new year is an opportunity to learn something new, to become wiser and happier. You should’t set these goals only at new years, but at every day of the year.